So I'm waiting for a call back from the early intervention folks. I'm impatient. I want a professional to see her yesterday. Her speech has gotten so much worse just overnight.
It's as if our Little Miss Words was flying along at 90 m.p.h. and hit a brick wall. She was chattering about anything and everything only a week ago, mild stutter and all, but now even the basics are a struggle.
She has developed her first secondary behavior. When she is blocking on "I" or "is" or "pretending," three of the words that trip her up the most, she now covers her mouth with the back of her hand. A secondary behavior at twenty-three months? I have never heard of such a thing. But then, I only know the adult side of stuttering. Maybe it's not so rare? Maybe it's not such a bad sign?
She has been laughed at twice in the last twenty-four hours by well-meaning people, once on the playground and once by one of my husband's coworkers. When she tries to start a sentence with "I," she blocks and produces only a choking sound that goes on for five seconds or more. People don't recognize it as stuttering. They just see this tiny child opening her mouth and producing a strange sound, so they laugh.
Today while riding in her carseat and trying to ask me a question about the song playing on the car stereo, my daughter got so frustrated she cried. I was driving, and I couldn't reach her to comfort her.
I'm supposed to know what to do. I'm supposed to know how to deal with this. So why do I feel so helpless?
Come on, folks. Call me back, call me back, call me back.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
In my experience, it takes a while - you might not get a call for close to a week and then you will have to do an intake on the phone for about 30 minutes. Then, you won't actually get an evaluation (where they come to your house and evaluate if she qualifies for services) for a few weeks after. It is a long process but once you are in, and have a case manager who you can call directly, things move faster. If you can't wait, or want to sort of speed up the process, see if you can get a private evaluation while you are waiting. It will cost you more (ours was $300) but EI will usually accept the report and you will also feel like you are making some headway.
I am so sorry this is happening, I wish I could give you both a hug!
I was planning to stay in the house until I got that call back, so thanks for clueing me in! :-) The waiting is easier if I know it's normal to have to wait.
Thanks again for your support. I appreicate it more than you know.
Post a Comment